Hershey's New Friend

Dark & White Chocolate, our favorites!









Come on, give me a kiss, I want you to like me!

2posts in one night, how do you like that? Finally, I am posting pictures of our new friend! Yes, we added a new dog to the mix. Why not, right? 4 kids, 2 dogs, it is fun! We had been contemplating another dog, so Hershey could have someone to help her burn off energy. She is a spazz. (Hershey is the brown dog) My dear friend Kathy, (who has lots more children and had lots more dogs than I) could not keep her. So, we thought, why not? We met up w/ our friends last weekend, and to our house she came. She is a 1 year old cockapoo. Not our normal pick of dogs. We typically choose the dogs with squashed in faces, short hair, that most think are so ugly they are cute! The kids all said, mom, it is our first dog w/ a snout! HA! She is a pretty dog, and her coat is so soft. She has been very overwhelmed here for sure this week and scared to death. So to make sure this was going to work, we called on our very own Dog Whisperer! Couldn't get Cesar, but we did find a girl who came in and said there is hope! She took lots of notes and will be back on Monday w/ our plan. And I would assume she will train us, not the dogs! Which if you have met Hershey, you know we need all the help we can get. Now if only I could find a Kid Whisperer, maybe I could handle me some more kids... Anyhow, here she is! Her name was Rosie, which we have changed to Reeses or Reesy, to go along w/ Hershey. Yes, we have a candy problem going here!

If Only I could Blame the Kids...

Or Mark, or the dogs, but this one is all on me... The above picture is a peek at what it takes to wash for 6 of us. Tonight, as I was working on getting a stain out of a shirt, I turned on the sink in the laundry room, threw in some stain stuff, and left. Was chasing Sage around, trying to pick up, etc. Malaine comes from the basement and said, Mom, there is water pouring in our basement. And I, being the good mother I am, said, oh that is good, i will look at it later. She demands, MOM, LOTS OF WATER! I think she is being silly, but walk towards the stairs and that is when I hear, the WATERFALL of water in the laundry room. I FORGOT TO TURN THE SINK OFF! AHHHHH! It is flooded, out into the dining room, through to the basement(thank goodness not over the finished office) EVERYWHERE! Mark, being the good husband that he is, does not say a word, just gets out his new wet vac and starts cleaning it up. And then in a very calm voice, asks me to please not do that again! ;) ( Renee, does this sound familiar? And here I was laughing at YOU doing this not long ago! )

16 months old & Saying Prayers

Love this smile! And look at those teeth(along w/ a mouthfull of food, sorry!)
Saying Prayers
Talking to Jesus

I just love these pictures from this month. It just speaks so much to my heart when I see them. Here is our daughter, who had not heard the name of Jesus for 9 months of her life, now talking to Him! Sure, she does not quite understand it, but she knows that when we talk to Jesus, we bow our heads and we are quiet. (though the quiet part is sometimes beyond her!) She knows when we sing Jesus Loves me, that he is STRONG! As she holds her arms up in fists! She knows that the name of Jesus is said over and over in our home and to her. We may not know much about Sage's early days, but we do know that God had a plan. He knew the day would come when she would be born, when she would be abandonded and when she would be in our arms. He knew the day she would fold her little hands in prayer to "talk to Him". And I believe He smiles over this precious baby girl who is one of His.

Mark & I both agree, this is our very favorite age! Of course there are great things about every age. But this age, oh the innocence and the CUTENESS!! Every single thing they do at 16 months is just funny! Even the naughty things are cute, how can you do anything wrong when you don't know what is wrong? Or even if you know it is wrong, like playing in the toilet, you can't help yourself because it is just so interesting to see how the water swirls around when you stick a hand in there. Everything is an adventure, or a new learning experience.

Sage is busy, cute, smart and just wonderful! We are enjoying sleeping through the night, self feeding, and watching her grow. And we continue to fold our hands in prayer with her thanking God for each day we get to enjoy our 4 amazing kids.

Llama Farm

hmmm, is this just another big doggie?
I have no carrot's, but here is a finger you can try!
How about a big kiss?
He did kiss me Mommy! Haha!

Hold on tight!
Or it will be gone!

Sage and her friend sharing fruit puffs
3 cuties swinging away!
One of the baby llamas, running from the squeaky shoes!

This week on one of our almost 80 degree day's we visited a llama farm with our MOPS group. Malaine & Sage had a great time! These girls are scared of nothing and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine! It was a really neat farm, the owner rescues llama's and alpaca's. The kids got to make a craft w/ llama hair which they thought was funny!

Doctors Visit

Sweet Smile!
Beautiful Girl
Our Brown Eyed Girl!
Yeah for Sisters!
I LOVE Lainey!

Sage saw the dr this week for her 15 month checkup. It is embarrasing, she starts screaming as soon as they open the waiting room door and does not stop till we leave. She finally did calm down and started playing w/ the dr, till she had to look in her ears, then it was over. She got a good report anyways! She is now 20 lbs 10 oz which puts her in the 20% for weight. And she is 28 inches long putting her in the 3-5% for height. So in other words, tiny! She had shots, had her wax dug out of her ears, all the fun check up stuff. Dr said she was very impressed with her language skills, which of course we are to!
Other big news, Sage moved out of our room and is sleeping GREAT! I hate to say that, but so far, it has gone much better than we expected. We both keep saying we should have done this sooner, for her sake. She is happier overall. Makenna is not so thrilled, she got kicked out of her room, so Sage could move in. And while in there, Sage managed to pull off half of makennas border, which is just the right level as the crib! Makenna is going to get her room back, but for right now we wanted to get Sage settled in a quiet area of the house. It really is musical rooms here.
The Chinese New Year party was LOTS of fun, I am waiting for pictures to post for you. We did finally get a new lens, but not before that party.

Happy Year of the Pig!

We celebrated Chinese New Year here last week. We are heading to another party today for CNY and wanted to get these pictures up before the new ones! We had a great time celebrating China for the gifts that we have been given in our family. Beautiful blessings.